Was Gluten-Free the Fix?

I woke up on January 1, 2015, and realized that in my 43rd year of life, I still eat like I did when I was 23. Because my 43-year-old body is certainly not the same as my 23-year-old body, it made sense to drag my husband into a family eating affair.

Here is our gluten-free month in a nutshell.

• The main foods we replaced were bread, cereal, pasta, and frozen pizza. We replaced them with alternative foods (rice or quinoa for pasta) or GF versions of the same foods (GF bread and GF granola). Here’s a simple list of GF foods.

• GF products are more expensive than their cheaper gluten-filled alternatives, but since our main substitutions were breads, cereals, and snacks, we probably spent an extra $10 a week.

• I was 99 percent perfect. Maybe even 99.5 percent perfect. I cheated twice accidentally and twice on purpose. Accidental cheats involved Ben & Jerry’s (damn you Speculoos gluten cookies!) and eating a chicken nugget to convince Wilder of their deliciousness (she still refused). The purposeful cheats happened during a dinner reception where there wasn’t a GF option.

• For the first time since I had a baby, I went to the bathroom every single day. Yes, I’m talking poop on a public forum! I can’t say this was due to eliminating gluten, but that’s the only thing I changed, so I think it was. Tim’s philosophy is that it may have been the addition of the nongluten alternatives (i.e. breads with rice and amaranth flours) that kept things loose.

• My hands are still really dry. Some people say going GF immediately cures eczema or dry skin issues. I did not experience this immediate return to baby-soft hands. In fact, my toddler recently told me to stop touching her face because my hands “hurt” her.

• I was much more conscious of what I ate. I almost snacked on Goldfish, animal crackers, pretzels, and many other devilish gluten-filled foods, but caught myself at the last minute.

• Possibly due to the lower snacking levels, my body seems leaner than normal, which could also contribute to the next point.

• I had decent energy for the month. In general, I had more energy than normal. On a scale of 1 to 10, I probably increased a full point and the only possible factor is that I eliminated gluten. That’s pretty huge!

• Finally, and very importantly, thanks to my friends at Kim & Jake’s, I was able to eat copious amounts of birthday cake for a week. I can honestly say that their cakes are LITERALLY better than gluten cakes. And I don’t take my cakes lightly!

In summary, I definitely don’t have a gluten-intolerance and I probably don’t have a high level of gluten sensitivity, or I think I would have experienced more dramatic effects. But eating less gluten in general seems to be a good direction for me. Gluten-lovers: don’t worry, we can still be friends.

I encourage you to experiment with eating philosophies throughout your life. There are so many different perspectives that may help you not only feel better, but get more in tune with yourself as you get older.

A Part of Hearst Digital Media
Runner's World participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.